Tags: 4 Min Read; Jumbo Relief
Writing an email just now:
Things are good here. (War being the horror it is.)
Made me think: The Vietnam war raged while the U.S. had peak rock-n-roll. I don't think anything in Israel is "peak" but the wheels seem to turn.
Woofing crazy.
It is Yom Hazikaron and tonight Yom Haatzmut. The first is Israeli Memorial Day, for fallen soldiers. The second is Independence day. Sadness flows into celebration. It's a mental twist. Every year people here ask: Should there be some time in between? Isn't it crazy to be organizing a party on the same day we remember the dead?
If You Read One Thing
In our name: A message from Jewish students at Columbia University (PDF here)
Mark Rudd, Leader of Columbia University's 1968 Anti War Protests
Interviewed in Haaretz (PDF here). A few excerpts:
"I fell for all that stuff. I fell for Black Power. I fell for 'by any means necessary.' I wanted to express my moral outrage, and I went overboard," he reflects. "Eventually, I went way overboard with the whole Weatherman craziness."
Watching the latest student protesters from afar, Rudd, 76, fears they are repeating his mistakes.
"They don't like to hear this – young people don't like criticism, have you ever noticed that? – but the truth is that I suffer from a sort of PTSD because so many of the things I believed and the actions that I took were wrong and had horrible outcomes. I lay awake at night thinking about the big errors I made, and the students are making the same errors now by not making clear that they are for peace and for the humanity of all people. We blurred the line between violence and nonviolence back then, and so are they right now.
...
"They're not supporters of Hamas," he says. "They're supporters of their own stupid ideas. They believe that Hamas is the oppressed, that the oppressed have the right to resist, and that those who are safe – for the most part white kids like themselves – have no right to tell the oppressed what to do."
"Trust me," he says, "I lived this, and friends of mine died because of this stupidity. They are painting themselves into a corner, just like I did."
... (New Mexico)
"The reason I'm not that active [in organized Jewish life] anymore is that I can't stand a lot of my fellow Jews," he explains. "You know, like the story about the synagogue you wouldn't be found dead in? There are a lot of people in JVP [Jewish Voice for Peace, an anti-Zionist, pro-BDS movement] who are traumatized by Israel, but it seems to me that they don't have any perspective. Like if I tell them that New Mexico is also a settler-colonial state, and the only difference between New Mexico and Israel is 100 years, they don't see the significance of that.
"In fact, many of my comrades in JVP are so traumatized by Israel that they think it's uniquely evil. But it's not. This is the world we live in and, unfortunately, mass murder, colonialism and genocide are extraordinarily common."
I recall a high school history class. In California, where I grew up. I responded to something the teacher said by saying, "Look, some would say that right now we are sitting in occupied Mexico." He got it. So does Mark Rudd.
Ahhh context....
Only in 2024
Remember when I talked about "It's Personal." When in history would we have imagined a huge poster, in Tehran, in Hebrew, with pictures of Israeli military leadership?
(Why also in English? Because it is also a warning to the U.S.)
How Right is Andrés Spokoiny?
Andrés Spokoiny is president and CEO of the Jewish Funders Network: What Died at Columbia? (PDF here)
A few of his questions:
‘Education is the antidote for antisemitism’
‘Left-wing antisemitism isn’t dangerous’
Relief Area
Alef
Bet
Gimmel
Dalet
Hey
(U.S. syndicated editorial cartoon)
I am heading up to Jerusalem tomorrow for a Yom Haatzmut (Independence Day) party. Many are choosing not to celebrate. The host pulled it together at the last minute with the theme: דבש ועוקץ - Honey and the Stinger (c.f the song by נעמי שמר, lyrics). Here is a snippet translated (translation: R.Z. 2024):
About the honey and the stinger,
The bitter and the sweet,
Our baby daughter
Protect them my Good GodAbout the fire burning
The pure water,
The person home
from places farAbout all of this, all this,
Save me, my Good God.
The honey and the stinger,
The bitter and the sweet.Don't uproot the plant,
Don't forget the hope
Bring me back and I will return
To the good land.
On the bus home an hour ago, the driving was beyond aggressive. The driver attacked the bus with the hardest stops and turns the machine can do. (To his credit, he paid attention when someone was standing and eased up a tad.) Israeli bus drivers are known for treating their buses like sports cars. This was beyond.
The driver: A Palestinian Israeli.
I would have offered him gum, but he was too eager to be done (my stop is at the end of the line).
Stay well,
Raf
(Thank you A.K., S.F.Z.)